WAIL interviews Seattle, Washington's indie electronica synth-pop group Static Shore!
In Static Shore who plays what? On our first album "Life and Love In The Hologram" (LLITH) and "Tides"(Coming April 7th), Shannon would write/record a vocal melody and lyrics on her iPad and send me (Eric) the file. I'd then write music and beats to accompany the vocals. We always bounce ideas off of each other. The unique part is that we are actually recording as we write. Most bands like to write everything, then hit the studio. We prefer recording as we write, which allows us to capture the mood at the moment without over-thinking things.
Where are you from? Easy answer, mainly from Denver, Colorado up until about 6 years ago when we moved to Washington State. Shannon has lived in a number of other locations including Germany, Chicago, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New Mexico.
When did you start playing music? For each of us, sort of around 10 years of age. Shannon sang on a radio station as a young kid. Her mom was rather musical and probably had an influence, but Shannon's beautiful and amazing singing ability has always been there I'm sure. She's learned piano and guitar along the way and is even picking up the drums with our Electronic drum set. I stole my brother's drum sticks and eventually taught myself how to play piano. Also, had self-taught myself guitar, and can proudly say that my first guitar performance in public was at Disneyland though my high school's music program. Long story, but after 4 months of playing guitar, I was invited to join the school on a California music tour. Major fun for a kid learning music.
What inspired you to start playing music? Music simply did for me. I bought albums, mainly ones that had lots of keys, and drums in it. Shannon was just born to sing.
Who are some of you biggest musical influences? Shannon's: Folk and acoustic music. Eric's: Sting, Rush, Depeche Mode, and the music of today. I can't get enough of what's current.
What year did the band form? 2016, although we've been writing music together for years.
What's your genre of choice to describe your sounds? Electronica, SynthPop, FuturePop, Indie Electronica. It's hard to say because our music carries into a lot of varieties of Electronica music.
What inspires you today to keep making and playing this music? We are constantly humming tunes that we make up as we go about our day. So we're really just recording what comes to mind and having fun with it.
How often and where do you rehearse? Never. Seriously, never. I think in all of our years together writing and performing music, we've had maybe 2 or 3 rehearsals and we both found them to be useless. We both just show up, knowing our parts, and do it. Again, we write and record simultaneously so we just know what we've recorded and play it live.
What are your songs about? We're really into a wide variety of ways to examine ourselves and see how we can be better people and how we can inspire others to inspire themselves. Occasionally we'll write about views of the world, but we'd love to inspire people to examine themselves and make the most out of every moment.
How have you developed as a songwriter since you started writing music? It used to be that I'd write the music and Shannon would add vocals and melody. We consciously decided to switch it up and work in reverse. Shannon starts the vocal and melody and I write music to it. It's been an enjoyable experience. It allows Shannon's melodies to be freer and more open without constraint, while I get to challenge myself on how to apply to an already assigned recipe of a song. It's taught me humility, and I've discovered new ways to write and record.
Aside from Static Shore, do you have any side projects? Shannon is working on project currently called "Veritas432" which is sort of the electronica-glitchy side of things, but with some really beautiful textures in sound. I myself am happy to jam with some friends in "Borrowing Days" a rock band where I get to play guitar and keys while writing some rock songs.
What are some of your interests outside the band? Meditation, sight-seeing, Reiki, Electric Vehicles
Are you looking for a label? If it helps us with promotion of our music, yes. We write, record our music quickly but promoting takes us from our focus.
When you write a song, do you start with the music or the lyrics? Shannon starts with the lyrics and melody, then Eric applies music. It wasn't always this way.
Do you have any sort of a ritualistic pattern associated with composing music? Sometimes it starts with just simply walking through the house and humming a melody.
What was one of your most memorable and favorite gigs? With two album releases, we've not performed a show with Static Shore yet. But with one of our previous projects, a man simply handed Shannon a wad of money and said "thank you for your music" and walked off. It happened to be $500. We weren't even able to provide him a CD of ours. The man has forever been a mystery to us. Plus we loved road trips to and from the ski resort towns in Colorado from our years pre-Static Shore.
How do you think the music industry needs to change? We find it's easier to change ourselves, our approach and adjust.
What advice would you give other bands or artists? Not everyone will like your music and that's ok. Write for yourself first. If others love it, embrace those.
Do you have a shout out? We'd like to dedicate our music to our little dog man, Winston. He's sweetness is always within our music.
J. Wesley - WAIL Music Magazine